


Whumpmas Day 11

by taylor_tut



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Langst, Pneumonia, Sick Character, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 22:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13110111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: For vldwhumpmas day 11: pneumonia. Lance inhales a seed, and it starts to grow in his lungs. The only way to prevent a dangerous surgery is to expel it naturally.





	Whumpmas Day 11

“Shiro,” Lance wheezed, “I--I can’t--” he trailed off, staggering forward into Shiro’s chest.

“Hey, easy,” Shiro soothed. “Coran says you have to get the seeds out. Come on. Again.”

* * *

 

Shiro kept his gaze steady and his tone even despite that this wasn’t easy for him, either. Pidge frowned, glancing at the floor for a moment to muster enough strength to smile at Lance. 

“You can do it,” she cheered with false optimism.

“Burning,” Lance complained. He grabbed blindly for something to steady himself, and even though he was explicitly told not to, Keith stepped forward and snaked an arm around his shoulders, easing him to the floor. “M’gonna pass out,” Lance warned, not for the first time.

“You’re not,” Keith said simply. It wasn’t a warning, but it wasn’t a reassurance.

“Fuck off,” Lance bit, shrugging out of Keith’s grip, “you dunno how bad--hurts.”

* * *

 

The cough that Lance had been fighting off had turned scary when just that morning, Lance had taken three steps out of the elevator and paled.

“I’m gonna pass out,” he’d declared.

“What?!” Hunk panicked, reaching forward as Lance gripped the doorframe and tried to blink away black dots from his vision.

“He’s being dramatic,” Keith had hoped, “so he can weasel out of training.” 

Lance didn’t take the bait. His knees gave way beneath him.

“Oh, shit,” Keith breathed, “get help.”

Lance had still been semi-conscious on the floor, his eyes rolling, struggling to take a full breath.

“Not gettin’ air,” Lance gasped. His breath was indeed rattling in his chest; Keith could feel that now that he was pressed against his side.

Coran and Allura had looked at his lungs and declared that a plant had taken root in his lungs. Likely having breathed it in on a jungle planet, the seeds only needed warmth, moisture, and oxygen to survive, and Lance’s chest cavity had unknowingly made a great garden.

* * *

 

The seeds had sprouted, and now the only way that Lance could avoid a dangerous extraction procedure was to create enough lung movement to expel them naturally.

“I know,” Keith tried to soothe, “I know it hurts, but you’ve got to keep going.”

Lance would have to work himself right to the brink of fainting if he wanted to cough up those seeds, and then he’d have to actually  _cough them up_ , which would be another ordeal entirely.

“This sucks,” Lance let himself lament as Keith pushed him to his feet.

“You can say that again,” Shiro winced. “Training sequence, activate. Level two.”

The bot lunged, kicking Lance square in the ribs, an attack that was easily predicted but sluggishly protected. “End,” Lance wheezed, a coughing fit overtaking his body.

“End training sequence,” Shiro barked, dropping to his knees beside Lance. “Think this is it?”

Three times thus far, Lance had endured false alarms, but this time he nodded and gripped for Keith’s shirt. Keith and Shiro both tried to swat him on the back, which he clearly did  _not_  like, but if it helped the whole thing be over faster, then it would be worth it.

He didn’t cough out the seed.

Instead, he just hacked until he turned blue, threw up a mouthful of bile, and lost consciousness.

“Shiro, we’ve got to call it,” Hunk fretted. “This is going to kill him before he coughs up the seed.”

“One more round,” Shiro insisted. Lance was already starting to come back round now that he was lying on the ground.

“You’re with us again?” Keith double checked, and Lance nodded with unfocused eyes. “You’re going again.”

Lance was hauled to his feet before he had a chance to object, and honestly, the only thing that was keeping him from lying in a heap on the floor was the fact that every time he listed to the side, the bot would strike, knocking up back upright like a punching bag. 

It wasn’t obvious if Lance was conscious or not when he lurched forward and coughed up something with a green leaf attached.

Keith didn’t waste time in grabbing it and carefully pulling it from Lance’s lungs. It was covered in blood and some kind of horrible-looking mucosal fluid, but it was there. It was out. 

A single, germinated pea-looking plant had been in his lungs.

“Pod, now!” Shiro ordered, but Keith kept his focus on Lance.

“You did it,” he said, “look! You did it.” 

Lance’s eyes flickered lazily to the plant. “Fuck that thing,” he wheezed, “plant it in a jar. I want it.”

He passed out, and emerged from the pods a few days later to find a small pot with a sapling reaching out of the dirt.


End file.
